That's a lovely little snake-looks more like a type of racer or whip snake than a water snake.

I found this page that shows the Dahl's Whip Snake, Coluber najadum and it looks very similar but the one pictured has more spots.
http://www.herp.it/indexjs.htm?SpeciesPages/ColubNajad.htm

Also the Coluber rubriceps- which is normally more of a reddish color may be what it is.

I wish I could read some of the pages I pulled up! You may have better luck doing a search on google.com
Good luck with your snake.
Lora

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• snakes in syria identification - bishr, Wed Apr 7 13:14:18 2004
• RE: snakes in syria identification - rearfang, Wed Apr 7 15:53:39 2004
• RE: snakes in syria identification - lolaophidia, Wed Apr 7 17:41:47 2004
• RE: snakes in syria identification clarification to previous post - lolaophidia, Wed Apr 7 17:46:52 2004
• RE: snakes in syria identification - bishr, Thu Apr 8 15:13:57 2004
• Looks like Coluber najadum to me too. Harmless. - chrish, Wed Apr 7 21:43:16 2004
• RE: snakes in syria identification - WW, Thu Apr 8 05:23:23 2004
• final conclusion - bishr, Fri Apr 9 07:36:36 2004
• Actually... - WW, Fri Apr 9 14:15:26 2004
• RE: Actually... - bishr, Sat Apr 10 11:00:47 2004